5th November, 1991

A couple of days later, it was Saturday, and time for our first Quidditch match of the season.

Slytherin vs Gryffindor.

I was the only on our team who had actually seen how well Harry, who was practically Gryffindor team’s secret weapon, could fly. And frankly, I was a bit worried, because he could fly extremely well.

But as a Beater, I had an important contribution to make; hitting the Bludgers at members of the opposite team. I swore to myself to hit any Bludgers that came my way at Harry, if possible.

The first part of the game didn’t exactly go well, but at least nothing particularly bad happened. We were losing, sure, but it wasn’t hard to see why.

Gryffindor team’s Chasers were all very agile girls, while ours were Flint, the Captain, another fifth-year boy who Flint didn’t seem to like much and a blundering idiot who was one of Flint’s closest friends, which was the only reason he was on the team.

I flew up fairly high to watch the game, while the other Beater, another of Flint’s close friends, followed Flint around and stopped him getting hit by a Bludger.

No sooner had I found a good positionthan a couple of red haired (probably Weasleys, I thought), identical twinsflew up to me, one on either side.

“Hello,” one began. “We heard you were –”

“The new Beater for Slytherin,” the other finished.

“Did Flint finally get some sense and get someone who isn’t half–troll to join?” the first one asked.

I shook my head. “McGonagall got me to join. I don’t think Flint was too pleased.” The twins exchanged delighted glances. “But, uh, who are you?”

“Well, he’s Fred Weasley,” said one of them, pointing to his brother.

“And he’s George Weasley,” finished Fred.

“And I suppose you two are the Gryffindor Beaters?” I asked, spotting their bats.

They nodded.

I glanced back at the game to see if I was needed.

A Bludger was fast approaching the Slytherin Seeker, so I was obliged to hit it away.

Luckily, Harry Potter was nearby, so I hit the Bludger at him.

He glared at me, ducking, and flew off.

George flew around behind Harry then hit it back at our Seeker.

The Seeker flew away and I deflected the Bludger at one of the Gryffindor Chasers instead of Harry.

“Hey!” George exclaimed, pouting. “You can’t hit Bludgers at our team!”

“I’m a Slytherin! Not a Gryffindor! Do you really expect me to hit Bludgers at my own team?” I defended myself.

The twins grinned. “Yep,” they agreed in unison.

I shook my head, laughing.

Suddenly, Fred glanced down at the game and his face tuned solemn.“Hey! What’s happening down there? It looks like Harry’s broomstick’s been…cursed, or something!”

I stared at Harry. His broomstick was rolling over, twitching about and generally not behaving like a broom at all.

Someone was clearly doing something to it, but who?

It wasn’t hard to see. I glanced into the crowd and there he was, wand out, muttering under his breath and staring unblinkingly at Harry.

Professor Quirrell.

I saw a sort of shuffling in the crowd near him. For some reason, Hermione was urgently pushing her way through the crowd.

Soon, she had reached where Quirrell was and she dashed straight past him but knocked him right over in the process.

Good job, Hermione! I thought.

Harry’s broom returned to normal and he went back to flying around, looking for the Snitch.

I caught sight of a flash of gold on the far side of the pitch, probably at the same time as the two Seekers, since they immediately began streaking off towards it, hands outstretched.

Just when I thought our Seeker had caught the Snitch, it disappeared. And it wasn’t hard to see that both Seekers’ hands were empty, so where had it gone?

Then Harry dived.

Or rather, fell.

He tumbled down and landed hard on the ground.

“Ouch,” George winced.

I’d forgotten they were still there.

The two teams flew down to investigate what had happened.

As I got closer, Harry began coughing madly and something fell out of his hand.

A small, winged, fluttering, golden something.

The Golden Snitch.

It was the end of the game and Gryffindor had won.

“Ha! We won! Told you so!” Fred declared, smirking.

“You told me no such thing,” I responded, but I couldn’t help grinning.

“What’s your name, anyway?” George asked.

“Jade,” I replied. “Jade Evans.”

I had never used the surname before and the taste of it felt unfamiliar in my mouth.

“Okay, bye, Jade,” George said and then he flew off the pitch.

“Oh, by the way, we don’t mind that you’re a Slytherin,” Fred assured me, before flying off after his brother.

I landed and walked over to where the rest of my team was gathered.

Flint looked furious.

“We should have won that game! You two Chasers – not me – should have scored more hoops! Seeker, you should have caught the Snitch! Keeper, you should have blocked more of their hoops! Beaters, you should have hit more Bludgers at Potter! I was the only one who played perfectly!” he ranted.

Biased, much?
That was just unfair, and I had to say so. “I’m a Beater and every time a Bludger came near a member of our team, I hit it at Harry, except for once! And it’s not like you played perfectly at all! You missed all your hoops except two! And the Seeker was really close to catching the Snitch, and the other Chasers scored more hoops than you, and the Keeper blocked a fair few! In other words, everyone made a good effort but you!”

Everyone stared at me. I supposed they were thinking, who does this first-year girl think she is, standing up to the Captain?

“She’s right, you know. Your effort this game was pathetic compared to everyone else’s, Flint!” one of the other Chasers – the intelligent one – pointed out exasperatedly.

Flint switched his glare to the Chaser. “Just because you’re a fifth-year and a Prefect, doesn’t mean you can boss me around, Sirius Malfoy! I’m still Captain!”

“Malfoy? As in Draco Malfoy?” I asked interestedly. I never knew Draco had an older brother – or any siblings at all, for that matter.

“Yeah, but I was adopted,” he explained. “My parents were both magical, my adoptive father – Lucius – made sure of that,” he added darkly.

Flint didn’t have time for this, apparently, because he ordered everyone off the pitch.

Reluctantly, I sighed and followed him.

“So, what’s your name?” Sirius asked me.

“Jade Evans,” I told him.

When we had changed back into our school robes, we headed back to the Common Room as a group.

But on the way, we were intercepted by none other than Professor Snape.

My father, I reminded myself.

“Just the people I was looking for. Follow me, all of you,” he commanded icily.

Naturally, we did as he ordered, since he was our Head of House.

He led us to his office.

“I am aware of our team’s loss, obviously. I wish to talk to you all separately about how you played. I will give you some advice, so hopefully we can win our next match,” he explained. “I’ll begin with the Captain, then from there I shall go in age order from oldest to youngest.”

Smirking at Sirius, Flint followed my father into his office.

After Flint was Sirius, then the other Beater, then the last Chaser, then the Seeker, then the Keeper, and then finally…

“Beater, Jade Edwards!” he called, then motioned for me to come in and take a seat.

He smiled at me as I sat down. “Jade, that was a brilliantly played game – even more brilliant when I consider that it is your first Quidditch game ever. I don’t really have any advice, other than to play as well as this next time. Oh, and I did notice that you hit almost every Bludger at Harry Potter.”

I smiled, then had a serious thought. “Sir, when Harry’s broom was going crazy, I saw that Quirrell was staring straight at Harry, not even blinking, and he was muttering stuff under his breath! And he had his wand out!”

My father nodded. “Yes. He was cursing Harry’s broom. I was trying to stop him, but Hermione Grangerknocked him over for me. Unfortunately for me, she also set my robes on fire.” He indicated a hole in the bottom of his robes.

I frowned. “I didn’t see that.”

He shrugged. “Oh, it’s fine! But this meeting is taking a while. You had better be going now, Jade.”

Are you my father? A voice inside my head yelled. Ask him!

I hesitated. “Sir?”

He looked up. “Yes?”

Come on, Jade! Ask him if he’s your father!

No, I can’t! I thought frantically.

“Never mind, sir. It was nothing,” I said, while inside my brain was screaming at me in frustration.

“Okay. Well, goodbye. I shall see you here again at 7:35,” he said as I walked out the door.

I had agreed to meet Blaise, Alex, Dean, Seamus, Lavender and the twins by the lake after the game, so that’s where I headed.

I could tell there was an argument going on as soon as I got there.

“We rightfully won!” declared Lavender and the other Gryffindors and Padma nodded.

“Potter almostswallowed the Snitch! You have to catch it IN YOUR HAND! It shouldn’t have counted!” Blaise complained.

“Exactly!” Alex agreed.

“Hi,” I greeted them.

“Potter catching the Snitch shouldn’t have counted, right, Jade? You should know, you were right there when it happened!” Blaise asked me.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably not. But I follow the staff’s judgement.”

“See? She said ‘probably not’! Jade knows what she’s talking about – she’s a Quidditch player!” Alex exclaimed.

Pavarti folded her arms. “Alex, why are you supporting Jade? You’re a Ravenclaw, you shouldn’t be supporting Slytherin!”

“So I have to support Gryffindor?” Alex demanded.

“I guess not…” she conceded reluctantly.

“You see my point?”

Everyone started arguing loudly again.

“Okay, um, Professor Snap asked me to see him at 7:35 tonight for some reason. So I’d prefer not to spend my time arguing, thanks,” I informed the group coldly.

They immediately fell silent.

“Sorry, Jade, but what do you expect us to talk about? Exams?” Dean asked.

“Oh no!” Padma and Alex gasped in despair.

Padma added, “I’ve barely done any study at all!” She and Alex dashed off towards the castle.

“Where are you going?” I called after them.

Alex turned around. “The library, of course!” Then he disappeared into the building after Padma.

“Nerds,” muttered Seamus. “Honestly, you’d think they lived in the library, the amount of time they spend there.”

“That’s Ravenclaw down, just Gryffindor left to go,” I joked weakly.

Blaise laughed, Dean rolled his eyes and the other Gryffindors just glared at me.

“Jade, it’s nearly 5:30. That game took all aftern00n. We have to go up to dinner now,” Blaise informed me, glancing at his watch.

The six of us – Blaise, Dean, Pavarti, Lavender, Seamus and I – headed up to the Great Hall together.

I went to sit down at my normal seat, while Blaise had to talk to Dean and Seamus about something.

We ate in silence, pausing only to ask others to pass food.

After dinner, Blaise told me that he had agreed to meet Dean and Seamus and that he had to go.

I waved as Blaise dashed off down the corridor.

I went straight to the Common Room, gave the password, ‘Salazus’, then walked inside.

There were some fifth-years, sixth-years and seventh-years standing off to the side. Third- and fourth-years were scattered across the room in groups. Anja Pansé was sitting on a couch near the entrance to the Common Room. Next to her were the two people I normally saw her with, a second-year boy and a second-year girl.

I didn’t feel like joining Draco’s group, so instead I decided to join Anja and her group. “Hi,” I said, sitting down. “Can I join you?”

Anja nodded. “Sure. This is Cat and this is Kaz. Cat and Kaz, meet Jade.”

Cat, the girl, who had red hair, smiled at me. “Hi, Jade.”

It sounded as if she had a slight Canadian accent.

“Hi,” Kaz repeated.

We began talking and soon I found out that Cat was a pure-blood and Kaz was a half-blood. I also discovered that they were both very sarcastic, like me.

After playing Never Have I Ever with the three of them for half an hour, I learnt some other interesting things about them, but it would take an age to repeat all I learnt.

After half an hour, I told the others I had to go and left.

I walked quickly to my father’s office and knocked.

My father opened the door. “Ah, good evening, Jade. Come in.”

I went into the room.

“Why did you want to see me?” I asked, straight to the point.

“I wished to explain what is happening during the Christmas holidays. Most students will be going home. However, your case is a special one. Your carers, unlike everyone else’s, do not know the true nature of his school, am I correct?”

I nodded.

“This simply means that you, along with Alex Johnson, who came here with you, will be staying here over the holidays. You may wish to pass this message onto him. There will, of course, be other students here with you, but the majority will have left.”

“Who else is staying?” I asked, hoping to hear more of my friends’ names.

“I cannot name them all by memory,” he told me, “but I do know that, unfortunately, Potter will be staying.” His lip curled in distaste.

“Oh.”

Ask him! My brain shouted. Ask him if he’s your father!

“Sir?”

“Yes, Jade?”

“I wondering…why do you treat me like I’m your daughter and you’re my father?”

He sighed. “Because, Jade Edwards –”

“Actually, I think you’ll find it’s Jade Evans,” I corrected.

He stared at me. “What…who…how?”

“Hermione,” I said.

“Granger? Oh, her. I should have guessed she would work it out, sooner or later,” he admitted.

“Yeah. Hermione worked it out after I showed her my pendant,” I explained, indicating it.

“Oh, yes, that. Lily insisted on having it made, just before she div-divorced me.” He didn’t sound very happy. That made sense.

“She was married to you? Why did she divorce you?”

He sighed. “Yes, she was married to me. But no-one knew except James Potter, your godfather, because the Dark Lord would have killed me if he found out that I had married and had a child with a Muggle-born from Gryffindor House. And then she divorced me when she found out that I was a Death Eater,” my father explained.

I gaped at him. “You’re a Death Eater?”

“Was,” he replied firmly. “I think it’s time for you to go now.”

I had one last unrelated comment. “Also, when I was getting Sorted, the Sorting Hat said that my father was a Slytherin – which makes sense – and that my mother was descended from Slytherins.”

“Hmm, I’ll have to investigate that. But it had best be left to the holidays, I have essays to mark. But in the meantime, you should probably go.”

“Alright,” I said.

So now he knew. What was going to happen now?